Authors: Elle Saint James
Jessica’s thoughts ran fast and furious. A date? With Deacon Wilder? At a high-end steak house? She knew
that
restaurant, and the booth he talked about was for lovers, if there ever was a place.
“Sure. Am I dressed okay?”
His gaze scorched a path from her eyes to her waist and back to her eye again. Did he like what he saw?
“You’re perfect.”
“Great. I’ll look forward to it.”
“Excellent. And Boyd will probably also have a few questions for you. We can discuss the job in greater detail later to see if you’re interested. But no pressure, okay?”
“Boyd?” Jessica had forgotten he was in the bar. Her disappointment must have shown clearly. She’d thought they were about to have a date.
His eyebrows narrowed. “Yeah. He and I agreed to take care of staffing for the place. We’ve been looking, but not finding, the right people for our needs. Still interested in meeting?”
“Absolutely.” She had nothing to lose by meeting with him. Even if a more lucrative job wasn’t exactly her primary objective. She could still spend some time with the man, or men, who lit her fire. Perhaps a clearer front-runner for her lustful intentions would emerge. She also had needs. Boyd was the only other name in her top list of men to pursue whenever she grew a backbone.
“Great. I’ll stop by before we leave to go over there.” He finally backed away as the older man came up to the desk.
Jessica leaned forward again. He also leaned closer. Eight inches apart this time. His scent washed over her. “Just don’t mention it to anyone here, okay?”
He winked at her, and his quick grin made her knees weak. Luckily she was holding on to the desk, or she would have folded like a bad poker hand. “Of course not. We’re just talking. Nothing wrong with that,” he said in a low tone. The sound of which made her nipples tighten beneath her sensible cotton shirt and smart work jacket. He flashed one last sexy smile and edged away from her space to greet his business client.
Jessica resigned herself to a business meeting for a future job she didn’t want or need, questioned by two of the most luscious men in the small town of Ryder. She guessed there were worse ways to spend her time.
At least she’d get up close and personal contact with the two men at the very top of her please-fuck-my-virginity-away man list.
Chapter Two
Deacon reluctantly left the concierge desk of his favorite hotel. Jessica Troy had surprised him tonight. There was something different about her. Something intangible, but still important. He just couldn’t figure out what it was. He’d seen her a number of times before today at her desk, but he’d never before lusted after her with such relentless force that he offered her a tentative job that didn’t exactly exist yet.
What is wrong with me?
Mr. Crawford led him to the restaurant where Boyd waited at their
usual
business discussion table. They sat, ordered drinks, and talked strategies for nearly an hour. And while he engaged in the conversation, making several mental notes to carry out Mr. Crawford’s wishes, the vision of the lovely Miss Troy was never far out of his peripheral mind.
When she’d suddenly leaned forward to whisper to him earlier, his cock had pulsed in lust, and he had wanted to lock lips with her for just a taste. Perhaps it was her attitude that was suddenly more projected. She seemed a bit more “here I am” today than other days, when she’d merely been a cordial concierge doing her job. He’d always thought she was very attractive. However, today the azure blue color of her eyes alone kept his rapt attention.
So surprised to learn she wanted to discuss a possible job change, Deacon hadn’t thought carefully through asking her out to the steak house. It was probably a really bad idea to have a nonfinal job interview conversation in a semi-intimate dinner setting with someone he’d suddenly found so sexually fascinating, but at least Boyd would be there to rein him in if he’d misread the situation. A bulb went off in his head.
That
was the difference. Her eye contact had been so forward and intense. Her expression candid with every word he spoke, as if she hung on every syllable.
Mr. Crawford finally got up from the table strewn with partly empty drink glasses and half-eaten appetizers, said his good-byes, and exited through the bar area, likely back to his room. Boyd tilted his head and gave him a narrow-eyed look. “What is wrong with you, tonight?”
“What do you mean?” Deacon tried to pretend nothing important was on his mind. Jessica’s expressive, smiling face slid by his frontal lobe, making a liar out of him. He should have known better than to get anything past his friend. Boyd could practically read his mind in business situations. It wasn’t a stretch to believe he had similar skills on a personal level.
“I don’t know. You just seem distracted, and like your mind is about five hundred miles away. What are you thinking about? Or are you thinking about someone?” Boyd sipped his drink, and grinned as if he’d figured something out.
Deacon didn’t understand how Boyd knew, but that was probably what made them such good friends, and even better business partners. They could read each other like an old married couple. “Fess up. Who is in your head right now, because is certainly isn’t Mr. Crawford.”
Deacon looked over his shoulder to ensure they were alone and whispered, “Jessica Troy.”
Boyd, visibly startled, sat back. “The concierge of this hotel?” He looked in the direction of Jessica’s desk, even though it was covered by the wall of the restaurant, and a half smile formed. “Well, she’s certainly worth taking a second look at, but I have to tell you, I’m a bit surprised. She seems sort of, I don’t know, terminally innocent, I guess. But very attractive all the same.”
“Not for
that
. For a possible job at the ranch property once we start the year-round hotel service.”
“A job? What the fuck, Deke? We aren’t ready to staff up for that yet. We might not even do it this year. Why would you want to interview her for a job we don’t even have currently available?”
Deacon shook his head. “I don’t know. I just looked at her tonight, and she smiled at me, and something different happened between us. My mouth moved before my brain connected. Maybe I am after
that
with her after all.”
“She is a fine-looking, but extremely young, woman. Are you sure you want to initiate something with her?”
“No. I’m not sure. I’m out of my head. Somebody stop me, please. I wish I had a friend to help me through this tricky time in my life.”
“Don’t be a dick. I’m just sayin’ she wouldn’t have been my first choice for a woman, given the venue and constraints of our current lifestyle.”
Deacon’s mind wandered back to her lovely eyes and her luscious mouth. “I’m not asking
you
to do anything. Maybe I’ll just see her myself.” Deacon internally cursed. He wished he could take those offhanded words back the moment they left his mouth. He and Boyd didn’t date women on a single basis. They approached them together with their unbridled lifestyle. Those women sharing their bed understood what they liked. That’s the way they operated. Always.
Boyd’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “You don’t want
me
there. Interesting.”
“No. Yes. Fuck. I don’t know why I said that. I’m sorry, Boyd. Something is wrong with me, obviously. I just couldn’t seem to stop myself.”
“Did you set up a date with her?”
“Yes. Wait. No. Not a date. A meeting. And I told her it would be with both of us. She’s expecting you to ask her questions about a nonexistent job I invented to keep a conversation going when I should have backed away and shut my foolish lips.”
Boyd stared at him for a solid three seconds before another half smiled formed on his lips. “You’ve got a crush on this girl.”
“Shut up. I do not have a crush on her.”
Do I?
“Tell you what. We’ll start talking jobs and see where we end up. Maybe she was interested in you. Maybe she was flirting a bit. It happens, you know.”
Deacon shrugged. “Maybe you’re right. She said that she doesn’t even want a new job. She just said she liked to keep her options open, and all of a sudden, I wanted to be one of her options. I can’t really explain it any better than that.”
Boyd grinned. “I love to see you like this.”
“What? Stupid and crazy?”
“Lustful and filled with possibilities for finding the company of a woman. In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s been a while since we tripped the light fantastic with a female willing to share us. Maybe your cock is doing your talking for you.” Boyd downed the rest of his drink and pushed out a long breath. “And one other thing, it isn’t like you have to ask my permission to fuck someone.”
“Yeah, but I’ve never gone single with anyone in town. And Jessica Troy isn’t going to want to share her life with two men who more often than not like to watch threesomes having sex while participating in the very same pleasure.”
Boyd shrugged. “Well, not yet. Perhaps she could be introduced to it by two men who would guide her gently, or aggressively, into our unbridled men’s club.”
Deacon wiped a hand down his face in frustration. “I seriously doubt it, but I’m glad you’ll be there tonight. I don’t trust my instincts where she’s concerned. I just want to find a flat surface, pull her panties off, bury my face in her pussy, and bring her off to hear her scream my name. I mean, shit, what the fuck is wrong with me?”
Boyd laughed. “Nothing that I can see, Deke. Don’t worry about it. I promise to assess the situation and signal you if I think she’s a contender for the both of us.”
Deacon shook his head and downed the rest of his whiskey. “Mark my words. She’s
not
looking for anything so decadent as our way of life. She can’t be. You were exactly right when you said Jessica Troy is far too innocent.”
“Tell you what, if she’s only looking for one man, then I won’t be crushed if you take her for a singular ride and get her out of your system. One-on-one.”
“Generous of you, especially since I’d kick your ass for asking the same thing.”
“You would? Shit. Then I take it back.”
Deacon looked thoughtful. “I don’t want you to take it back. And I won’t kick your ass if you want to do the same thing. I just never thought we’d carry on without each other, at least not locally.”
“Are we changing our partnership?”
He sat quietly and mulled over the implications of what he was suggesting. “No. That’s not what I want. Not really. There is just something about Jessica Troy that intrigues me all of a sudden, and I feel the need to explore, but I don’t want to scare her, or worse, piss you off. Does that even make any sense?”
“Sure. But don’t worry. I’m not at all pissed about any of this. Tonight will only be about talking, right?”
“Right. Just talking about a job we don’t actually have to offer her just yet. Because I’m a big fucking idiot.”
“Well, we’ll make that clear up front.”
“That I’m an idiot?”
“No. She doesn’t want to leave her job here anyway. You said it yourself. So we’ll ask her a few questions and make it seem like she isn’t right for the job.”
“But don’t hurt her feelings.”
Boyd pushed out a long sigh, and didn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes. “No, we won’t hurt her feelings. Jesus. I can’t believe how she’s gotten ahold of your balls like this. We’ve seen her here for months. I always thought she was attractive, but not like I couldn’t keep my cool.”
Deacon shook his head. “Me either. But something changed today. She changed. In the past she’s always been so demure. She’s never leaned forward, or engaged me, or smiled like I was the only man on the planet. And the moment she singled me out for her attention, I lost my head. Visions of her splayed before me, naked and willing, took over.”
Boyd shrugged. “Not a brain buster. She’s beautiful. I can understand her inspiring such thoughts in a man’s head. And it isn’t like I wouldn’t consider her if she understood our needs. But I don’t want to be searching for a new partner, either, if you decide to change your mind about our arrangement to go off with her alone.”
“I promise you, Boyd. I don’t want to change our arrangement,” Deacon said forcefully. “Like I said, I just need to talk to her a bit more. A single conversation will likely get her out of my system anyway. I’m not going to persuade her into our lifestyle if it is evident that she doesn’t want to go. I suspect she doesn’t even know such things exist.”
Boyd tilted his head to one side. “Perhaps you’ll be the one surprised.”